Travelodge, the UK's fastest growing budget hotel company, today announces the acquisition of two hotels from Swallow Hotels, and the exchange on a further five hotels for a combined investment total of £69.9 million.
The seven hotels, which will follow Travelodges preferred leasehold model, are located in England, Scotland and Wales, and will add 669 rooms to the company's portfolio.
Travelodge will invest £5 million in refurbishing and branding the Swallow Hotel located in Scarborough and, pending planning permission, invest £2 million converting the Swallow Hotel in Edinburgh. Both hotels will be trading under the Travelodge brand by early 2009.
Of the total £69.9m, £34.5m will be invested in the remaining five hotels, which are located in London Finsbury Park, Porthmadog, Gloucester, Caernarfon and Egham.
Paul Harvey, Travelodge's Property Director, said: "As price and location continue to drive consumer behavior we are seeing customers shift to budget hotel accommodation. These new hotels, in some of the top UK tourist spots, will add nearly 700 new rooms to our portfolio - helping us to make hotels available to more people than ever before.
"We continue to actively seek and pursue, new development and growth opportunities are looking to open a further 4000 new rooms in 2009".
About Travelodge | The first budget hotel brand to launch in the UK in 1985, Travelodge now operates 330 hotels over 22,500 rooms nine in Ireland, three in Spain and the rest in the UK. Travelodge plans to grow its estate to 70,000 rooms approximately 1000 hotels by 2020.
Six and a half million people stayed with Travelodge last year and 87% of reservations are currently made online at travelodge.co.uk where room prices start from £19 per room, per night. The chain employs 5,000 staff and is owned by Dubai International Capital, who acquired the organisation from Permira in 2006. In April 2007, Travelodge announced the first stage of a new online retail strategy when it became the first UK hotel company to launch a Travel Insurance product.
Melvin Gold report | A UK budget hotel will be built, opened or converted every three working days for the next 20 years. The budget hotel sector is set to treble by 2027, growing up to ten times faster than the rest of the hotel industry.
With the total hotel market forecasted to continue to grow at around one percent in each year for the next two decades, the budget sector growing at 10% for the next five years and 5% for the following five years will be the primary growth driver of the accommodation market. The budget sector is expected to grow to 225,400 rooms representing 26.8 of the market by 2027.
The study recorded the current total number of accommodation rooms in the UK at 716,500, with the budget sector currently accounting for 85,665 12 of market.
